SAN ANTONIO — Rick Perry, the longest-serving governor of Texas and an unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate last year, announced on Monday that he would not seek another term but would instead “pray and reflect and work to determine my own future path.”

As for what happens after his term is over in 18 months, he said he would “announce any future considerations in due time,” almost certainly an allusion to the possibility of a White House bid in 2016, though he made no direct reference to it. Mr. Perry has indicated regret over entering the presidential race relatively late in the process and has said that back trouble and a lack of sleep contributed to his gaffe-plagued campaign.

But it is an open question whether an earlier start and better health would make a difference for Mr. Perry, should he try to run again. Mr. Perry faces some daunting challenges. First, he would have to convince Republican primary voters that he is not the lightweight who could not recite the third of three federal agencies he would eliminate and blurted out, “Oops.”

Beyond rehabilitating his image from the debates, Mr. Perry must also demonstrate to ever-demanding early-state voters that he will pursue their votes in the fashion to which they have grown accustomed: one at a time.

Mr. Perry faced criticism during the campaign last year that his entourage of aides and security officers made him seem detached from the traditional retail-style politics of a place like Iowa.

Most challenging of all for Mr. Perry is whether there is even space for him in a 2016 primary field that is sure to look very different from the last campaign.

With next-generation Republicans like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mr. Perry’s fellow Texan, Senator Ted Cruz, eager to test the presidential waters, the primary could be far tougher than last year’s, when Republican activists seemed to examine and discard a shifting group of candidates in searching for an alternative to Mitt Romney, the weak front-runner.

On Monday, Mr. Perry stood on a temporary dais against a backdrop of American and Texas flags and heavy machinery intended to underscore his focus on jobs and the state’s economy and faced a friendly crowd of longtime supporters and employees of Holt Cat, a Caterpillar dealership. Its chief executive, Peter Holt, also owns the San Antonio Spurs and is a major contributor to Mr. Perry’s campaigns.

“We have created the strongest economy in the nation,” Mr. Perry told the crowd, through encouraging growth, balanced budgets and an overhaul the tort system.

“We have stood strong against unwise policies from Washington that would bust the bank,” he said. “We have better protected the right to life for Texas children. And we have protected the sanctity of marriage.”

Mr. Perry said he was proudest of the jobs created in the state while he was governor, citing 1.6 million new positions.

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He withdrew from the last year’s presidential race and quietly returned to Texas. But he recently regained national attention when he squared off with Democrats in the State Senate who opposed a stringent anti-abortion bill, which seems headed for easy passage in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

In particular, he took on State Senator Wendy Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat, after her 11-hour filibuster halted the bill’s progress, at least temporarily.

He also spoke out against her directly at a National Right to Life convention in Texas, suggesting that Ms. Davis especially should understand that “every life matters.” He later explained to reporters that Ms. Davis had been a teenage mother, and that her own mother had also been a single mother and might have considered abortion.

“What if her mom had said, ‘I just can’t do this, I don’t want to do this’?” Mr. Perry said. The comments angered fans of Ms. Davis, who saw the attack as unstatesmanlike and offensive. Mr. Perry later said that his comments “were meant to be a compliment for what she’s accomplished in her life.”

The anti-abortion bill is almost certain to pass during a special legislative session called by Mr. Perry. Ms. Davis has said she will not filibuster again, and with weeks before the end of the session, a filibuster would not be possible.

The anti-abortion bill is already making its way through the Legislature. Last week, a House of Representatives committee passed the bill on to the full House after an eight-hour hearing in which about 100 witnesses were heard out of the thousands who had signed up. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee considered the bill on Monday. Both houses are scheduled to reconvene Tuesday; the House has already scheduled debate and a vote on the bill for that day.

In his speech on Monday, Mr. Perry was fluid and passionate, though a longtime observer of Texas politics noted that it did not say much. “It wasn’t even bait and switch; there was no bait,” said Paul Burka, senior executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine. “He just bragged about Texas, and bragged and bragged, and gave no information whatsoever, except what everybody already knew — that he wasn’t going to run again, though he never said so directly.”

For Mr. Perry’s supporters, it was an event of powerful emotion and hope. Ray Sullivan, a former Perry staff member, called the announcement “typically big and bold,” adding, “I believe he will run for president again.”

To run in 2016, Mr. Perry, 63, will have to return to Iowa. And officials there suggest the road will be uphill. “His poor showing in the debates gave me pause,” said Mark Lundberg, chairman of the Sioux County Republican Party in Iowa, adding, “If he gets his act together, he could be a viable candidate.”

But, he said, Mr. Perry was “still not my No. 1 or 2 choice at this point.”

Mr. Perry would at least have a chance at a second hearing, said Lisa Van Riper, president of South Carolina Citizens for Life. After the embarrassments of the primaries last year, “He just went back home and pulled his boots back up,” she said. “He’s proven he’s got a lot of mettle.”

Mark McKinnon, a Republican media strategist who worked with Mr. Bush’s campaigns, said Mr. Perry “could perhaps have won another term as governor, but he would have become a pariah among the G.O.P. leadership in Texas who are all anxious for new generation of statewide elected officials.”

And if he does run in 2016, Mr. McKinnon said, Mr. Perry has two years to prepare, “Plenty of time to remember the third agency of government he’ll cut.”

John Schwartz reported from San Antonio, and Jonathan Martin from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on July 9, 2013, on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Perry Says He Won’t Seek Governorship Again in Texas. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe